Kathmandu - Hundreds of Maoist supporters clashed with
police in Kathmandu Wednesday, while a top Maoist leader expressed
optimism that his party could form a new government.
The renewed street protests came as political parties intensified
their efforts to form a new government following the collapse of the
Maoist-led coalition over the attempted sacking of the army chief.
Police clashed with the around 800 Maoist supporters in central
Kathmandu after they tried to vandalise a statue of a former king,
firing teargas at the protestors.
'The stone-throwing Maoist demonstrators vandalised vehicles and
attacked the statue when the police took action,' Kathmandu district
police office said. 'We acted to protect public property.'
At least two demonstrators and four officers were injured in the
clashes, police said.
Maoist lawmakers also disrupted a parliamentary session for the
second day Wednesday, demanding an apology from President Ram Baran
Yadav for reinstating army chief General Rukmangat Katuwal hours
after he was sacked by the Maoists, accusing the president of having
violated the constitution. They also vowed to step up protests in
parliament and on the streets.
The political crisis that erupted over the government's attempts
to remove Katuwal is threatening to derail the country's peace
process following a 2006 peace deal that ended years of civil war in
the Himalayan nation.
This week the Maoists attempted to replace Katuwal with his
second-in-command, General Kul Bahadur Khadka, despite strong
opposition from coalition partners.
Relations between the army and the Maoist-led government became
strained when the army recruited nearly 3,000 new soldiers this year,
while the Maoists were seeking to integrate nearly 19,000 of their
former guerrilla fighters into the military, as stipulated by the
UN-monitored peace accord.
Defence Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, who is a senior Maoist
politician, tried to block the recruitment, but the army went ahead
after the Supreme Court ruled it was legal.
On Wednesday, Nepal's former prime minister and chairman of the
Communist Party of Nepal, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, told a press conference
in Kathmandu that there were still possibilities for the Maoists to
join or lead the next government.
Dahal resigned on Monday in the power struggle with Yadav over the
government decision to sack the army chief.
'The president must first apologize and the unconstitutional step
to reinstate the sacked army chief must be overturned,' Dahal said.
'Only then we can join the government or form a government of
national consensus.'
Dahal also claimed a video in which he said the Maoists had raised
the total number of guerrilla fighters from 8,000 to 35,000 after the
truce was authentic.
The video, which was aired by almost all private television
stations in Kathmandu on Tuesday, appeared to have caught the Maoists
by surprise.
'Reactionaries and counter-revolutionaries have tried to distract
the people from the real issue of president's unconstitutional step
by releasing the videotape,' Dahal said. 'We are committed to the
peace process and multi-party democracy and nothing will sway us away
from that.'
Dahal said people needed to know the real organisational structure
of the Maoist combatants during insurgency fighting under central,
regional and militia command.
'If we add all our militias and regional forces during the
conflict to the central command, our combat strength would have
surpassed over 100,000,' Dahal said.
'Some of the militia fighters were brought into the central
command after the ceasefire and that is why the figures went up from
8,000 to 35,000,' Dahal said.
The video generated controversy over Dahal's comment that the
final push for communist revolution would be carried out after
integration of Maoist combatants into the national army.
Some analysts say the real reason behind the sacking of the army
chief was his opposition to integration of politically indoctrinated
Maoist former guerrillas.
The Maoists emerged as the single-largest party in the constituent
assembly but were well short of a majority in elections in April
2008, necessitating a coalition government.
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